SB – Krishna Is the Origin of Everything

Giriraj Swami: Matter and spirit. Everything material has a beginning, a middle and an end, or in other words temporary, whereas spirit is eternal. It has no beginning or end. In the present verse, Lord Krishna is distinguishing between the chain of material cause and effect, in which a cause produces and effect, the effect in turn becomes a cause for something else. But when that the cause of phase is over that cause, which was the effect of a prior cause also ceases to exist. And the example is given of firewood and fire. Firewood causes the fire. But when the causal effect of the firewood is over, or in other words when the wood is burnt to ashes, it no longer exists. Now, the verse mentions sat, the one eternal, and apart from the one eternal, there are many little eternals; nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām. Among many eternal entities there is one singular; cetanaś cetanānām, among many conscious entities, plural number of conscious entities there is one singular conscious entitiy. Eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān. And that one singular eternal conscious entity is providing for the needs of, and fulfilling the desires of all the plural number eternal conscious entities. And that one of course if Krishna, janmādy asya yataḥ, He is the origin of everything, He is the maintainer of everything, and when everything is annihilated He alone remains. And this fact is reiterated throughout Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and other Vedic scriptures. 

So in terms of the knowledge of the jnanis, the conclusion is that one should be detached from material things, knowing that they have a beginning and an end. And in the end, everything will be lost, even body will be lost. And therefore such knowledge is meant to foster detachment from material thing. But that is negative. What is positive? What is positive is that the Supreme Lord exists eternally. We are His parts and parcels, and we have an eternal relationship with Him. He is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. And when we realize our eternal relationship with Him, we also realize our eternal spiritual blissful nature. Now there is quite a leap from simply negating that which is temporary to accepting that which is eternal to be personal. It is quite a leap. And even amongst the aspiring spiritualists, so called spiritualists or aspiring spiritualists, it is very hard to make that leap. Most people are engrossed in matter. They are ignorant. But a few people who have a sense that there is something more than matter, who want to go beyond the vein pursuit of material objects, and pleasure, they generally can understand only the impersonal aspect of the absolute. Because actually they are on the material platform, which is relative and full of duality. So their concept of what is spiritual really comes from a material process, enacted on the material platform, which is very primitive. If you actually think about it, it is very primitive. But the logic is that we are persons, and we are suffering in material existence. So if we give up being persons, then our suffering will cease. It is just a negation on the material platform. It is not a spiritual conclusion actually. 

So, when we as devotees try to inform people that spirit can be personal, and in fact is ultimately personal, they have a difficult time, because they are identifying personality with material personality. They say how can you (Unintelligible 00:08:15) God, by saying that He is a person. Because they associate personality with material personality. If I am a person, I can exist in the temple room of the Radha-Giridhari mandir, but I can’t be in Escondido, I can’t be in Los Angeles, I can’t be in San Barbara, I can’t be in Bombay, at the same time. But Krishna, although a person, can be in many places at the same time, and in fact in all places. I as an individual soul, am conscious of what is happening in my body. The soul is situated in the region of the heart but the consciousness spread throughout the body. So I am conscious of the pain and pleasures throughout the body. But I am not conscious of the pains and pleasures in your body, and you are not conscious of the pains and pleasures in my body. But Krishna, He is in the heart of everybody, and He is conscious of the pain and pleasures, mental and physical in every body. So he is a person just like we are, but we are limited, and he is unlimited. Achintya-bheda-abheda-tatva. We are simultaneously one and different. We are one in the sense that we are both persons, individual conscious beings. But we are different, in that, he is unlimited and we are limited, or as Srila Prabhupada would say that we are one in quality but different in quantity. God is infinite and we are infinitesimal, or infinite-simal.

So this is a sublime philosophy, because it allows for us to have a relationship with the one eternal, with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Because we have the same qualities, we can have a relationship. If there is nothing in common between two people, they cannot have any relationship. I recently heard a talk in which Srila Prabhupada was speaking about friendship. And he said, ‘Friendships are very nice between equals. People who are similar or equal in education, in culture, in opulence.’ And practically we see it is like that. Devotees of course in the broadest terms, devotees can have relationships with other devotees. They are awkward, trying to have relationships with ordinary people who are averse to Krishna consciousness, and similarly ordinary people who are averse to Krishna consciousness may be uncomfortable with devotees. But even amongst materialists, or even amongst spiritualists, there are different gradations of age, cultural background, education, wealth, and relationships are very congenial when they are among people who have much in common. Spiritually we have the same qualities as Krishna. Sat, we are also eternal, cid we are also conscious, by nature full of knowledge, and ānanda by nature blissful, full of bliss. But because the quantity is different, the relationship is one of servant and master. And in the material world, people don’t like the idea of being servant because in the material world all relationship are miserable, but being a servant is especially repugnant. So when they hear servant, nobody is servant, I am my own man. But actually it is our natural relationship to be the servant of Krishna, who is the Supreme and in that relationship we are happy, and satisfied, and no other relationship can satisfy us. 

Srila Prabhupada gives the example that when a child is crying, the elders may pass the child from one adult to another, to pacify the child. But only when the child comes to the lap of the mother, or comes to the arm of the mother is the child satisfied. So in the same way we may go from one relationship to another, one place to another, but we can only be satisfied in our relationship with Krishna in the spiritual world. So this is a wonderful fact; jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya —kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa.’ It is wonderful; our constitutional position is we are eternal servant of Krishna. What could be better? Nothing! But people have a very hard time accepting it, because they are materially conditioned and contaminated or as I was going to say, as Srila Prabhupada would say because they are fools, and rascals but, actually, Krishna says that. Srila Prabhupada is just translating certain Sanskrit terms like mūḍhas, duṣkṛtina, into the language that we can relate to, and react to. So that is the fact, and therefore it is very difficult to preach; very difficult to preach because again, most people are engrossed in matter, and the few that are reacting against the suffering of material existence try to negate everything that they are associate with material existence, such as individuality, form, personality. They just try to negate it all, and merge, and become one, and disappear, or the words as Srila Prabhupada said, “commit spiritual suicide.”

So devotees are very rare. And Srila Prabhupada in his own way, (Unintelligible 00:18:05–07) Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura and his way, (Unintelligible 00:18:11–13) have said that even a neophyte devotee is more advanced than a so called highly elevated and knowledgeable impersonalist. That is how rare and precious a devotee is. And we are blessed to have the association of devotees. Not everyone does. There are devotees who have lived in temples, lived in temple communities, but due to circumstances often related to work or family have had to leave the community of devotees, and they end up in some place where devotees are few and far between, and they really miss the association of devotees. There are people who get books. Books are so powerful. People who get books and become devotees, but they might live anyway, where there are no temples, no devotees. And they read the books and they come to appreciate the importance of devotees, and the association of devotees. And then they write letters, ‘where can I find devotees?’ 

And depending on where they are, they may have to travel further or lesser distances to get the association. So how fortunate we are to be in the association of devotees. We should not take that association for granted. We should understand how rare, and precious a devotee is and how valuable that association is, because if we take something for granted, we may lose it. On one level of cause and effect we will lose it because we are simply neglectful, and if we are not careful, we can lose something. There is a very nice devotee in London. I often say at his house, and other devotees have frequently stayed in this house, His Holiness Jayadvaita Swami, His Holiness Sridhar Swami Maharaja when he was with us. He parked his car, a very nice Mercedes Benz in his drive way, and somehow I am not quite sure exactly why, he did not lock his car. He went into his house for two minutes to take care of something, and then come back to the car, and when he came back the car was gone, in a matter of two minutes. 

So he was not careful. What was going to happen in two minutes? But two minutes is two minutes, a lot can happen in two minutes. I had my own experience. It was one of the most mortifying experiences of my early days in the movement. I was distributing books at Logan Airport in Boston, and it was late. Flying wasn’t then now what it is now. There weren’t that many flights, even at a major airport like Logan. And my mood was, if there is one more person left that I can approach, I will stay out and approach that one person. So there was almost no one left in the airport, all the flights had pretty much departed and arrived, and I had to use the men’s room. So then okay, so I left my bead bag on the knob of the door, outside the men’s room thinking that I will only be inside for two minutes, there is no one around. When I come back, my beads will be there, and when I came back, they were gone. What panic, looking everywhere? There wasn’t even anyone to approach, to ask. So this is probably within my first year of being initiated, so I wrote to Srila Prabhupada and he was very kind, and he chanted on another set of bead for me, which I still have. I don’t want to jinx myself by mentioning it. So I wrote him and he was kind enough to chant on another mala, but he wrote back, “You must keep your bead very carefully. They are your direct link to Krishna.” So if we value something, we will take care of it. We will be very vigilant; we won’t take any chances.

Interestingly enough I was reading Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Vaibhava, which is one of my favorite books. And one of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati’s disciples asked him, “When I am riding on the train and I have to heed the call of nature, what should I do with my japa-mālā?” Because in principle we do not take our japa-mālā into the stool room. And Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati replied, “You should keep them with you. They are very valuable, and you do not want to be separated from them.” So that is the principle that if we value something, we take care of it, and we don’t take chances. Of course that instruction was in a particular context, of the Indian railways. I don’t know now, but when we use to frequently travel on the trains in India, we had to chain our trunks to the seats. What to speak of leaving something on the seat and going to the toilet. We could be sitting right there, but we still had to chain our metal trunk, or suitcase to the seat, and it had to be as strong a chain, and as strong a lock as possible because even an ordinary lock would not be that much of an impediment. We were told not to hang our arms out of the train window, because especially if you are wearing a wrist watch, some people wouldn’t hesitate to knock off your arm, to get your wrist watch. 

So, leaving your japa-mālā in the train while you go to the water closet, would probably be more risky than leaving outside the bathroom here. But the principle is that if we value something, like Prabhupada said, your chanting beads are your direct link to Krishna, we don’t take chances, not even for two minutes. So the association of devotees, we are talking about the value of the association of devotees, we don’t want to take any chances on losing it. I should mention that before the class began Dravida Prabhu told me that the Vyasa-puja offering are flooding in, and he will have to leave at a quarter to nine, to do service, and that we shouldn’t take offence, so you should all know that (Unintelligible 00:29:49–51) even a bad one like mine, unless he had another service. 

Devotee: Can I get on that train as well. I have a conference call at 9:00 o’clock. I would stay up to the last minute but when I get up (Unintelligible 00:30:00- 07), what is that all about?

Giriraj Swami: Okay. Hare Krishna. Yes, so we don’t want to take any chances. I have seen parents with children, they generally don’t take chances. They don’t leave the child in the car while they run into shop for two minutes, or five minutes. They know that in less than a minute something could happen, and there is just too much at stake, they just don’t want to take any chances. So that should be our mood in relation to associating with devotees, or that we don’t want to take any chances in jeopardizing our relationship with devotees, and our association with devotees. And that relates very much to our chanting, because if our relationship with a devotee, or devotees is disturbed, it will affect our chanting. We can be distracted, even while chanting but nothing can disturb our chanting, nothing can, you could say, cause the holy name to withdraw its mercy. Temporarily, part of the holy name’s mercy is to teach us a lesson. But in the immediate sense, nothing can cause the holy name’s mercy to recede like vaiṣṇava-aparādha. So we should be very, very careful. And vaiṣṇava-aparādha can be very subtle.

I recently received a letter from one wonderful kirtan leader Madhava, wonderful devotee, wonderful kirtan leader. So he had gone somewhere for twenty-four hour kirtan, a major kirtan festival, and he of course anyone who is serious about kirtan, could be qualified but in principle will not do it to make money. And Aindra Prabhu was most emphatic with devotees in his kirtan party that, “You do not accept money for your kirtan.” So Madhava is like that. He does not want anything to disturb his relationship with the holy name, or his ability to perform kirtan properly. But I am not sure exactly what it was, he had some money in that place where we went, maybe they were reimbursing him for his travel, I am not sure what it was, and he thought instead of carrying the money with him from one country to another that the temple would transfer the money to his account. It seemed like the logical thing to do. But in spite of, you could say repeated request, reminders he was not getting any response from the temple, the treasurer I guess, but the person who were supposed to send the funds. And Madhava was becoming disturbed, and he was disturbed but he was more disturbed that being disturbed about money would create a disturbance in his kirtan. And he said that he has to chant for a good half hour to just clear his mind of any sort of distracting or disturbing thoughts, and he did not want this to be there. But he actually needed the money to continue his service.

So that is the way it is, that is the way it is. If one is actually serious about chanting, one will not want anything to disturb one’s consciousness at the time of chanting, and really nothing can be as disturbing as the disturbance in the relationship with the devotee, or the group of devotees. So you want to be very careful about that. And that care can be exercised, if you will, by remaining in the consciousness of servant; gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ. Once in the temple there was some dissension, some conflict and one of the devotee asked Srila Prabhupada what they can do? And Srila Prabhupada replied that if every devotee thinks that he is the servant of the servant of the servant, then there will be no difficulty.” So you have to keep that consciousness, develop it, keep it. And as we discussed in the material world, where we have all come because we are envious of Krishna, we don’t want Him to be the enjoyer, we want to be the enjoyers; we don’t want Him to be the master, we want to be the master. So we want to be the master; we want the other devotees to serve us, and that is very offensive; offensive to the other devotees and offensive to Krishna. We want to take his position, and we want to take their service, instead of directing their service to Him. 

So although the philosophy is very simple in a way, very pure and very sublime, but to actually implement it, you can’t get away with doing something external. It is completely internal. With karma-yoga you can do things physically, with your body, but what is your consciousness? Even with austerities, you can sit in the hot sun and surround yourself with burning fire in the summer, in the winter in the freezing cold, you can immerse yourself in the icy water, you can do fasts, you can do so many things with your body, but what is your consciousness? Like Srila Prabhupada said, “You could be riding in a Rolls Royce, and be in pure consciousness, Krishna consciousness. You could be walking barefoot on the road in a holy place, and your consciousness can be completely mundane. So there is no pact formula for anything that you can do with your body to be Krishna conscious. You can only be Krishna conscious by being Krishna conscious, by developing bhakti. Sometime someone might think he needs to take support of karma, or jnana, or in modern language so many other physical, psychological techniques to help one’s bhakti. But bhakti is not strengthened by anything outside of bhakti. So someone may ask, “Well, then where do you get the strength to progress to further stages of bhakti?” The answer is that comes from the prior stage of bhakti. And this is eternal. We are talking about cause and effect. 

In the same Eleventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, bhaktyā sañjātayā bhaktyā, bhakti comes from bhakti. And what does that mean? It means that the more advanced stage of bhakti comes from the prior stage. You could say bhāva-bhakti comes from sādhana-bhakti, prema-bhakti comes from bhāva-bhakti, bhakti comes from bhakti. And that is eternal. It is not like other causes and effects, where the cause becomes and effect and then that effect in turn becomes the cause, but eventually it also terminates. All the elements in bhakti are eternal, and because of our conditioning, material conditioning, even when we come to the association of devotees, we have doubts about the process of bhakti. We are not completely convinced that it is real or that is eternal. We might think, Okay well I will do it for a while and then I will graduate. It is like you are in grade school, then you graduate, you go to high school, then high school you graduate, you go to college. So it is like, you don’t graduate. “I am chanting now and then when I am self-realized I stop chanting.” You never graduate. Or, “I am serving now but then when I become advanced then I don’t serve anymore, I become the master.” It is eternal, sat, it is eternal. Whatever we are doing now is eternal and real. And as we progress we may become more pure in our execution, but our activity will remain the same. This is reality; this is not illusion, this is reality. The Radha Giridhari temple, this is reality.

Radha Giridhari is reality. The service here is reality, and if we think, oh well, it is something, that spiritual life is going to be different, well it won’t be. Yes, it will be more pure, in that sense, but it is not going to be different. So we should take what we are doing here and now very seriously because it is not something you do for a while, and then graduate, and then you move on to something else. It is going be chanting, it is going to be hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, discussing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is going to be serving the devotees. Here we have to serve the temple commander, serve the temple president. Of course, here that wouldn’t be a problem but, (Unintelligible 00:43:44–50) what a bummer to serve the temple commander, what a bummer. Well that is what you are going to be doing in the spiritual world. The temple commander there might be Rupa-mañjarī, and the temple president might be Lalita devi, but it is the same principle. So don’t think that this is something you are doing just for a while and then you are going to graduate. This is it. This is it. This is sat, Sanatana. This is it. So you should put everything into it; do as best as you can and don’t take any chances. Don’t be inattentive even for a minute thinking (Unintelligible 00:44:40–42), because this is it.

Hare Krishna.

Devotee: I have a few questions. 

Giriraj Swami: Okay sure.

Devotee: First question. (Unintelligible 00:45:00–04) but my first question was if bhakti, and I fully accept, I am just enquiring, if bhakti is the only cause of bhakti, I can understand what is here on the train, but to get on the train of bhakti, bhakti is the only cause of bhakti. How did it start initially?

Giriraj Swami: Very intelligent question. Befitting for a man of your stature.

That very question is discussed by Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, and he gives the answer that the cause of bhakti is the mercy of a devotee. But in reality the cause of bhakti is the bhakti in the heart of the devotee, that inspires him to want to give mercy. That mercy is the function of his bhakti, and then when he gives his mercy, Krishna’s mercy follows. And, guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja, by the combined mercy of guru and Krishna, one gets the seed of bhakti. But in this analysis, it is specifically that the mercy of the devotee, or as they say, that bhakti in the heart of the devotee inspires the bhakti in the heart of the new person.

Devotee: Excellent. My second question? My second question, and I don’t really know how; I don’t want to put you on the spot because I wouldn’t know how to answer you. But this principle of hierarchy, even being in the spiritual world, and this process of serving and you gave a very nice example. We should accept the temple commander, the same mentality, the same, enhanced, purified, and all that, but the principle remains the same. So then one can argue, well if I am living in the temple, then I really do have to learn the hierarchy, I work under the temple commander, I work under the temple president, I develop the sense of selfless surrender and service; I have a taste of that. If I don’t live in the temple, I am just (Unintelligible 00:47:34–36) of an independent householder. Other than having to follow my wife, and the wife nagging the husband, or husband nagging the wife, other than that I have no master. So am I missing out? How do I get that element? Maybe by serving my spiritual master, but how do I get that element of surrender, and selflessness?

Giriraj Swami: That is it; the spiritual master. And as you were speaking, I immediately thought of Srila Prabhupada who was a householder. But he was always conscious of his spiritual master, and the instructions of the spiritual master. And in our case, I would say it is the general instruction to serve the Krishna consciousness movement which means, not to make it too general but, in broad terms, every spiritual master will instruct the disciple to take the association of devotee which would mean generally coming to the temple, or attending satsaṅga. Every spiritual master will tell the disciple to help spread the Krishna consciousness movement, and the vehicle that Srila Prabhupada envisioned for spreading Krishna consciousness is ISKCON. So that would mean, serving ISKCON, by your life, your wealth, your intelligence, your time. And when it comes to that interface with ISKCON, there will be people that you approach. There may be different people, but say you want to contribute financially, so there is someone in the temple you will talk to. You want to arrange some satsaṅga program, there is someone in the temple you will talk to. Or you want to come and do some service, clean the temple, make garlands, distribute books, whatever it is. So whether you are in the temple or outside the temple, the same basic principles operate. And when I served the temple commander, whoever my authority was, it was in my mind that Prabhupada wanted us to cooperate with the authority, so really I am serving Srila Prabhupada by following what the temple commander says. So I think the same applies to the whole variety of services that we can render. But that said, it is practice, it also turns out to be practice. But the hierarchy leads somewhere. It culminates with someone, and in Goloka Vrindavan it is Krishna. (unintelligible 00:51:14–16) for Krishna’s pleasure, and in ISKCON I would say, yes ultimately for Krishna, but in the more immediate sense it is for Prabhupada’s pleasure. And so in the spiritual world what would please Krishna most, and in ISKCON what would Prabhupada most, with the faith that by pleasing Prabhupada, Krishna will be pleased; yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo.

So it would come to that, exactly what you said when you asked the question. It starts with the order of the spiritual master, to associate with devotees, to spread Krishna consciousness. Now if one does not or one hasn’t accepted spiritual master, then you could say, well he should do what Srila Prabhupada says, until one has a personal spiritual master, even then (unintelligible 00:52:15–20) the same thing; associate with devotees, chant, hear, serve the deities, everything that the book says, and spread Krishna consciousness. So I think if one is sincere and serious, that so called, like Prabhupada himself said, (your question is so brilliant, it is awakening so many nice thoughts). There was a time when householders lived in the temples, and there was a time when maintaining some householder became a burden to the temples, because they weren’t really carrying their weight, if you will. And Srila Prabhupada felt in a way they were taking advantage of the temple. So then it became more visible in the society after Prabhupada left. But when he was here, he did say that in principle, except for advanced householder who were rendering essential service, the householder should maintain themselves. But then the question came up about association, and Prabhupada said very nicely that, “They should be materially independent, financially independent, and spiritually dependent.” So this phrase independent householder should really refer to them being independent financially but not spiritually because Prabhupada gave that ideal for the householder, independent materially but dependent spiritually. And he said, “If someone is very strong, say like he was, Bhaktivinoda Thakura was, they could maintain their Krishna consciousness without strong association but he said, “Our devotees, neophyte devotees, if they don’t have the association of other devotees, they will become affected by the material association that they will have.” And then he came up with that conclusion, financial independent but spiritually be dependent.

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.

Well I think no more need to be said. (unintelligible 00:55:20) Narayana Prabhu has elicited the essence. Hare Krishna.

Devotees: Hare Krishna

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Nitai-Gaura premānande.

Devotees: Giriraj Swami ki jaya